Tibetan / Vajrayana

Vajrayana Buddhism is most closely associated with Tibet and can be characterized by the figure of the siddha, the master whose spiritual realization is so profound that he or she has power over the phenomenal world, and in whom the profundity and vastness of absolute truth is fully and completely manifested. Many of our most well-known authors come from this tradition of Tibetan Buddhism .

[Note: The tags for the various schools are not definitive as many books span multiple traditions, etc. They are meant to use as a starting point for exploring this collection.]

Development Stage Meditation in Tibetan Buddhist Tantra

Deity, Mantra, and Wisdom contains four of the most cherished Tibetan Buddhist commentaries on the practices of visualization, mantra recitation, and meditative absorption. These three elements form the core of development stage meditation, one of the most important practices… Read More

Buddhist Pith Instructions

Straight from the Heart brings together an inspiring collection of Buddhist teachings, songs of realization, meditation instructions, and enlightened poetry—all chosen for their power to speak directly to the student. Drawn from Indian Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism as well as… Read More

An indispensable guidebook through the journey of life and death, Mind Beyond Death weaves a synthesis of wisdom remarkable in its scope. With warm informality and profound understanding of the Western mind, the Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche makes the mysterious… Read More

Maitreya's Madhyantavibhaga with Commentaries by Khenpo Shenga and Ju Mipham

Middle Beyond Extremes contains a translation of the Buddhist masterpiece Distinguishing the Middle from Extremes. This famed text, often referred to by its Sanskrit title, Madhyāntavibhāga, is part of a collection known as the Five Maitreya Teachings. Maitreya, the… Read More

Zurchungpa's Eighty Chapters of Personal Advice was the final teaching given by the great Nyingma master Zurchung Sherab Trakpa before he passed away. His counsels are the distillation of a lifetime's experience and comprise the practical instructions of a… Read More

The Aspiration of Samantabhadra

The reason we rely on the Vajra master is that we have already tried many different methods to wake ourselves up, but none of them really worked. We set our alarm clock for the next morning and then in… Read More

Tibet's Fundamental Treatise on Other-Emptiness and the Buddha Matrix

Translated here for the first time into any language, Mountain Doctrine is a seminal fourteenth-century Tibetan text on the nature of reality. The author, Dol-bo-ba Shay-rap-gyel-tsen, was on of the most influential figures of that dynamic period of… Read More

25th Anniversary Edition

Kindness, Clarity, and Insight is widely considered the most readable yet substantial and wide-ranging of the Dalai Lama's works. This celebratory new edition of the very first book of teachings by the Dalai Lama in the English-speaking world coincides… Read More

With Commentary by Kangyur Rinpoche

Nagarjuna's poetic presentation of the fundamental teachings of the Great Vehicle, or Mahayana—whose followers, driven by compassion, strive to attain Buddhahood for the sake of all beings—is remarkable for its concise style and memorable imagery, making it one of… Read More

170 Issues in Mind-Only Buddhism

Dzong-ka-ba's The Essence of Eloquence is still considered so important to Tibetan Buddhists that the Dalai Lama keeps a copy with him wherever he goes. This book examines many fascinating points raised in six centuries of Tibetan and Mongolian… Read More

Freedom is generally thought of as the ability to achieve goals and satisfy desires. But what are the sources of these goals and desires? If they arise from ignorance, habitual patterns, and negative emotions, is the freedom to pursue these… Read More

Dudjom Rinpoche's Heart Advice

Dudjom Rinpoche was one of the seminal figures in Tibetan Buddhism in the twentieth century, yet very few of his religious writings have been translated into English. This volume contains a generous selection of his inspiring teachings and writings,… Read More

Systems of Buddhist Tantra

In Tibetan religious literature, Jamgön Kongtrül's Treasury of Knowledge in ten books stands out as a unique, encyclopedic masterpiece embodying the entire range of Buddhist teachings as it was preserved in Tibet. The tantric path is often referred to as… Read More

Shantarakshita's Madhyamakalankara with Commentary by Jamgon Mipham

Madhyamaka, or the Middle Way, is accepted by all schools of Tibetan Buddhism as the most profound expression, in philosophical terms, of emptiness, the true nature of phenomena. Emptiness is the basis on which the whole of Mahayana practice is… Read More